George Bennett loves to display his hat as former secretary of the recently disbanded national Pearl Harbor Survivors Association. A 17-year-old radio operator on Dec. 7, 1941, Bennett, 89, fought fires when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Now he's recovering from a broken hip suffered in a fall.
(Dean Baker, Special to The Oregonian)

He's down to 134 pounds
and his broken right hip is on the mend, so Pearl Harbor survivor George Bennett of Battle Ground says he is ready to get
married shortly after his 90th birthday.

Bennett, 89, broke his
hip on Oct. 7 when his feet got tangled in his oxygen lines at his home at
Mallard Landing Assisted Living in Battle Ground. He fell and couldn't get up,
and he wound up in a rehab facility after surgery, but went back to Mallard
Landing on Nov. 19.

Bennett, who joined the Navy in February
1941, was a 17-year-old Navy radio operator when the Japanese quietly launched
184 planes from six aircraft carriers in the Pacific.

The
fighters struck Pearl at 7:48 a.m. He was in a barracks near Hangar 6, 300
yards from the Battleship California, which sank in the barrage. He recalls a Japanese
airplane flying past his window so close he could see the pilot in the cockpit.

View full sizeGeorge Bennett, right, and two of his buddies in front of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Waikiki. After Pearl Harbor, military personnel were allowed to stay overnight as guests of the famed hotel. Photo Courtesy of Jane Higgins. Courtesy of Jane Higgins

Bennett,
dressed in his Navy whites and preparing for liberty when the bombs began to
fall, Bennett spent the day fighting flames and turning his uniform black with
soot and smoke.

He said he saw dozens of
bodies of his comrades after the attack.

His goal was to protect
the Navy's planes. "Unfortunately," Bennett said, "when the Arizona went down,
it severed the water lines. So we barely had anything to put fires out, and we
couldn't stop the hangars from burning. It was useless fighting fire, and they
strafed us up there."

By day's end, the toll from the surprise attack
was devastating: four U.S. battleships sunk; 15 other ships of war sunk or
disabled; 188 planes destroyed; 159 aircraft damaged. The U.S. suffered 2,403
dead and 1,178 wounded, while the Japanese casualties totaled 64.

Bennett picked up a
warped Japanese bullet from the ground that day, a round he stores today in the
jacket of his Navy dress uniform. Over the years, he has showed it many times
in presentations at local schools.http://www.sdphs.org

Even during his recent
six-week recuperation at Manor Care Health Services in Salmon Creek, Bennett kept
on his wall a detailed map of Pearl Harbor showing where all the ships were
moored and how the attack advanced.

"You can see the whole
thing on one piece of paper," he said, gesturing at the sweeping diagram.

Bennett
kept the rehab center's staff entertained with stories.

"He's living history," said
Chi Pak, his physical therapist.

Dwindling ranks

Bennett has been among
the most active Pearl Harbor survivors nationally, serving most recently as
national secretary for the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, as well as Clark
County president. Seven or eight survivors still meet occasionally in
Vancouver.

View full sizeGeorge Bennett shows a detailed map of Pearl Harbor showing where all the ships were moored and how the attack advanced.Dean Baker, Special to The Oregonian

But the ranks are
thinning. Just this past year, three Pearl Harbor survivors in Clark County
have died: Bernard Lee DeGrave, 91; John "Bud' H. Bruening, 93, and Harold
Lacy, 89.

Of an estimated 84,000
American service members who survived the Japanese attack 3,000 or fewer
nationally are still living. Bennett said he believes it's more like 1,500.

Now, a new generation is carrying on the memory
in Vancouver and elsewhere.

The Pacific Northwest chapter of the Sons and Daughters
of Pearl Harbor Survivors, the national group that formed since the Pearl
Harbor Survivors Association folded in 2011, will commemorate the attack in
Vancouver this year at 9:55 a.m. on Dec. 7. Participants will throw a wreath
into the Columbia River at the Inn at the Quay.

About eight survivors from the Portland-Vancouver
area still attend get-togethers, according to Marc Lacy, the late Harold Lacy's
son.

"We
think there are probably two or three others who don't attend," said Lacy,
president of the Pacific Northwest Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors.
"We do want to honor them each year."

Life
after Pearl

Bennett spent the rest of
the war after Pearl as a radio operator, sitting behind pilots of PB4Y-1
bombers, a Navy version of the B-24 Liberator, going on bombing runs out of
Guadalcanal.

He stayed in the Navy
for six years, then spent 34 years more in the Navy Reserve, retiring as a Navy
chief petty officer.

View full sizeThis picture was taken August 1943 in the South Pacific. George Bennett is second from right in the front row wearing the baseball cap. It includes his PBY flight crew in front of their plane.Courtesy of Jane Higgins

Meanwhile, he made a living at Union Pacific
Railroad, putting in 35 years as a communications manager, most of the time in Hermiston,
Ore. He and his late wives had three children: Jane, Eileen and Mike.

His new romance, with Donna Higgins, began with
music playing at the assisted living facility and the two of them dancing
together.

Pearl Harbor remembrance ceremony

Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors’ Pacific Northwest chapter plans to mark the anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack with a wreath ceremony Dec. 7 at the Inn at the Quay in Vancouver. The wreath will be thrown in the Columbia River at 9:55 a.m., or 7:55 a.m. Hawaiian time — corresponding to the moment when Japanese planes began their assault 72 years ago.

Bennett's daughter Jane Higgins, no relation to Bennett's
fiancé, said the older woman's age is a mystery. "I won't tell you without her
permission," she joked. "She's going to be my step-mom!"

Laughter is one of the key's to longevity,
Bennett points out.

The mild-mannered Bennett says he feels fine these
days, except for the hip.

He remains devoted to
keeping the memory of Pearl alive. He's made many trips to the Hawaii naval
base on Dec. 7. This year, he won't make it, he said. He has a doctor's
appointment on Dec. 9 and besides the ceremonies at Pearl are diminishing, as
might be expected.

"We Pearl vets are
passing on quickly," Bennett said. "As national secretary, I get notified when
a member dies, and there are many more these days."

He, however, is planning
to keep on going. He loves to his wear his naval hats and his sunglasses,
flashing a smile and giving a thumbs up. He's looking forward to more time
rolling along with his new wife at Mallard Landing, he said.